by Sanpierre Juran, Business Commentator
In recent days there's been considerable outcry about The Blue Sun™ Company's new rules for the use of The Blue Sun™ trademark. Our shops are enjoined never to advertise simply "Blue Sun," but henceforth always "Blue Sun™ Cola" or "Blue Sun™ Beverages." Business reporters are dictated the permissible (few) and impermissible (many) ways to refer to the company and/or its products. Ordinary residents are being told how they are to refer to the company's products in the course of their own ordinary daily discourse - which, to many, feels much like being told, yet again, how to live their lives. Predictably, all are irritated, some are agitated, and a few are outraged.
Yes it is annoying and yes it's inconvenient and yes in some ways it's very stupid. But it's wrong to blame Blue Sun (sorry, the Blue Sun™ Company) for it.
This aspect of trademark law is very old, going back to the days of earth-that-was. It wasn't popular there, either. But it was just one of those things that hit every substantial company and brand at some point in their lives. It was annoying every time it happened, just as annoying as it is today, but they had to do it. And while it caused a hiccup or two, they got through it, as did their customers and their (when applicable) fans, and life went on. I've been there myself.
Once upon a time I was affiliated with one of the large inner-planet corporations. Never mind which one, because this story could have happened at any of them (in fact, did, everywhere). Someone there had invented a hugely popular programming language, and a department - soon to become an entire division - had formed around it to commercialize on its popularity.
For it surely was popular. Not only did it solve a lot of people's problems, it had a cool logo and a catchy, short name that everybody liked, though I'll just call it [popular programming language] here. Front-page articles touted the [popular programming language] Revolution! [Popular programming language] user groups appeared spontaneously across city after city. Books - some good, some not - appeared with [popular programming language] on their covers. A couple of magazines, too. The [popular programming language] brand was on fire.
Then, of course, the lawyers had to step in.
"Listen up," they said. "We have to tighten down on the legalities or we'll lose control of the trademark. If we lose control, any idiot can call his own system [popular programming language] without our approval, and that would be highly dilutive of value. Henceforth, treat our trademark as a proper adjective which must always modify a specific set of nouns taken from a list we will provide you. So from now on, you don't write a program in [popular programming language] or run it in [popular programming language]. You write it in the [popular programming language]™ Programming Language, and you run it on the [popular programming language]™ Virtual Machine. When you talk about the two of them together, it's the [popular programming language]™ Platform. You got that? Tell your customers, affiliates, and press contacts the same."
"But that's completely stupid and annoying!" we said in unison. "And unenforceable too," a few of us might have added under our breaths.
"True," the lawyers said. "But irrelevant. What matters is that we demonstrate intent to protect our trademark, by making a good-faith effort to comply with trademark law in all aspects, regardless of how stupid it is. Good-faith effort equals proof of intent to defend equals legal protection. Lack of any of those things equals greatly diminished protection."
They paused for Q&A and few of us snuck out to go online and do the research. The lawyers were right. Every company with a substantial brand does this. They don't want to. It doesn't make their employees or anybody else happy. It doesn't add market share. It costs money to redo every piece of literature, advertising, media and related propaganda that goes out the door according to the new rules. It's just a big headache all around. But they do it anyway, all of them, because this is how it is. You have to take exactly these steps to keep your rights to the brand. Otherwise you lose control of it, and then other people go and use your mark without your permission, and pretty soon your mark is no longer taken as a promise of quality in the marketplace, which is a very big problem, because that's what marks are for.
So we put up with it, and did our part. We rewrote our stuff to use the marks correctly, and we pushed others outside the company to rewrite their stuff as well. They didn't always do it of course, but we did make a good-faith effort to get them to do it, and from the legal standpoint, it was that demonstrated effort, not the results, that counted. Kind of like in kindergarten. And the [popular programming language]™ brand went on, and grew in importance. Trademark challenges - including one from a famously rapacious, sociopathic, and highly successful rival - were fought and defeated. A decade later, the brand is still strong and nobody feels put out or abused by any of it, because in the end they realized it wasn't a holy war, or an attempt to shaft anybody, it was just the ordinary business activity of realigning a few ultimately trivial words to better fit legal reality, once someone woke up and realized what the legal reality was.
The bottom line is, don't let this trademark thing get to you. It doesn't mean what people are imagining it means. It's simply a necessary part of the process of being in business, and it will soon be absorbed and internalized...and ultimately watered down to imperfect compliance and normalcy, just like all things. The annoyance is temporary. So forget about it, and join me for a drink and we'll find other things to talk about. You can look for me in Washtown. I'll be setting up a round of BS™ Lawn Bowling over by the vending machine, if I can find a flat spot.
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